Intel has designed a mobile handset

The dark satanic rumour mill has manufactured a hell on earth rumour which claims that Intelhas designed a mobile handset.

The gear could be manufactured by China's ZTE. Apparently the gear has been based on a version of its Atom microprocessor and will be flogged in China. It has been difficult to find anyone who will confirm the rumour. Intel and ZTE are refusing to say anything about it. However it does make sense. Chipzilla has been trying for months to get smartphone makers to take its Atom chip seriously. It fears that people will lose interest in the PCs so it wants to push into consumer markets.

A handset in China, if cheap enough, would open the door to other manufacturer to take Atom seriously for phone use. Yesterday it announced that the Oak Trail version of Atom is shipping and finding its way into netbooks and tablets.